Mystical Literature
Year:2021 | Volume:13 | Issue:26|Papers Count:6

This article seeks to explain the political views of two famous mystics holding different mystical views than those of Khanghah-Sufis, Jami (9th century AH) and Najm al-Din Razi (7th century AH), through the study of their anecdotes, Haft Aurang and Mursad al-Ebad. Although entering the realm of politics and affiliation with the court has long been a point of contention for intellectuals and mystics, mystics like Abd al-Rahman Jami and Najm al-Din Najmuddin Razi have provided advice for improving the state of the society. The political aspirations of these two mystics can be examined from four perspectives: how the king was elected, the religiosity and policies of the king, how the oppressed of the society were organized, and criticism levelled at the government's policy for earning money. This descriptive study, by citing representative examples from Hafte Aurang stories and quoting the teachings of Najm al-Din Najmuddin Razi, seeks to examine the political ideals of these two mystics, who lived in two different social conditions, so that the differences between the roles played by them and the reasons for their involvement in the political activities could be determined. The results of this study show that due to different social conditions in these two eras, there are fundamental differences in the political thoughts of these two mystics of the 7th and 9th centuries AH.

Considering space as an original matter and natural concept in ancient Greece thought in contrast to assuming it as something abstract, continued, quantitative, and measurable in modern thought has resulted in different concepts, conclusions, and formalizations. With the essence of space and the truth of residing diminishing in the sphere of modern thought, Martin Heidegger strived to focus on the concepts of being-in-the-world of Dasein, residence, inhabitance, and spatiality through visualizing space and considering space’ s truth. In Heidegger’ s words, we are ‘ residents’ ; essentially-spatial Dasein, in a spatial world. The present study was an attempt to analyze and re-read Beshr-e Hafi’ s narration in Tazkirat al-Awliya considering the essence and truth of space in Heidegger’ s thought. Emphasizing on this important issue that Dasein’ s existence is engaged in his conditionality, the present article deals with situational analysis of what happens in ‘ one day’ , ‘ on the way’ for Beshr-e Hafi. It shows how Beshr-e Hafi’ s decision and stance concerning a simple, ordinary incident makes that incident his own (owning event) and expands the options before him. After this event, Beshr-e Hafi is recalled by a divine message and he achieves safety and relief on the ‘ path’ that is apparently a place for passing and moving on. He is there, inhabits there, and this residence paves the way for the quadripartite unity of the Geviert; the Fourfold of the heavens, world, mortals, and gods. Living and being of Beshr-e Hafi is realized on the way with becoming and transforming and he achieves serenity on the way to residence.

In children's literary works, mystical thoughts are at times presented to the audience in such a compact and attractive manner in the form of a story, which not only increase the pleasure of reading the work, but also immortalize the literary work. In these stories, intuitive concepts are written in simple language for children. If we want to choose mystical stories for children, from among children stories, or if we want to choose such stories from the perspective of a researcher, what features can be considered for children mystical stories? Is it possible to provide a general definition of mystical literature specific for children including mystical stories? The theoretical framework of this research for studying children's mystical stories is Hasheminejad's classification of adult mystical stories (the only research available in this field). In addition, in the analysis of the three fictional works, the theory provided by Matthews in Philosophy for Children program, which highlights the importance of children's stories in philosophical imagination, is also partially included. This may aid to find a way to the mystical imagination of children and its cultivation. In the present study, conducted through a descriptive-analytical approach and deductive method, first, the what and how of childlike mysticism is briefly discussed; then, a five-component definition of children's mystical literature is provided; and last, in accordance with the features of adult mystical stories, features set for children mystical stories are presented.

One of the important topics in the field of Rumi-related research is the critique and analysis of Masnavi commentaries. Khwarazmi's commentary, Jawahir al-Asrar, after Ahmad Rumi’ s commentary (720), is the oldest commentary written on Masnavi in Persian language in Iran, which has influenced many commentators in the later periods. Although the commentator could not have used other commentaries and most likely, he did not have access to Romi commentary, the influence of the ideas of great Persian and Arab mystics and poets on him can be seen. Therefore, the researchers, through using descriptive-analytical research method as well as library resources, have tried to determine which of the primary sources of mystical prose has had greater impact on the structure and content of Jawahir al-Asrar and the extent to which it owes them. The results of this research help commentators and Masnavi researchers to better understand the meanings and concepts of this commentary. Furthermore, the findings will make them aware of the initiatives, innovations, or imitations in this commentary by examining the extent to which this commentary was influenced by other mystical prose texts such as Mersad al-Ebad, Tazkerat al-Awliya, Mishkat al-Anwar, Fusus al-Hakam, to mention some. It is worth mentioning that despite the great significance of this commentary and the new insights offered by it, it could not be called a compilation or composition since it is a report, writing out, or artistic collection of other ancient and primary prose mystical sources preceding it; which the commentator has often used with or without citing the sources and has included them in his commentary.

Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani, despite his short life, is one of the prominent thinkers of the mystic tradition of Iran and Islam. Most of the research about this famous mystic has been around historical issues related to his lifetime or his mystic and theological views. This is while Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani’ s thoughts contain significant political dimensions that have been neglected so far. This study, adopting the framework of paradigmatic-implicative approach, intends to examine the way he dealt with the crises of his time and his interpretations of them. Accordingly, the study aims to investigate the most important political implications and intellectual potentials residing in Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani’ s method of confronting the political and intellectual crises of his time. The results of this study show that Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani is a thinker who, while being immersed in mystic thought, has a precise and conscious analysis and explanation of political crises and circumstances of his time and has offered serious and vehement criticisms of them. The present article argues that Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani’ s critical confrontation with the intellectual and political crises and challenges of his time entails obvious political implications in his thoughts. Accordingly, Ayn al-Qudat can be considered not only a prominent figure in the realm of mysticism but also a sagacious intellectual who is deeply concerned about issues in public and political spheres.

In contemporary times, man has faced deep existential crises after experiencing great historical shocks— the Renaissance, the religious reform movement, the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment, and the First and Second World Wars. The main crisis is the crisis of life being empty of meaning that gives purpose and value to human life. In this research, the ideas of Abu Saeed Abu al-Khair (357-440 AH) and Krishna Murti (1895-1986 AD) have been studied descriptively-analytically to find solutions for getting out of the crisis of meaninglessness. The focal issue of this research is to find the meaning to live, with a focus on the teachings of Abu Saeed and Krishna and analyzing the differences and similarities of their views in this regard. The results show that Abu Saeed Abu al-Khair considers selfishness, absence of love, and lack of a genuine life as the main causes of existential crises in human life, especially the crisis of meaninglessness. His strategies for overcoming this crisis are avoiding narcissism and showing sincerity and genuine love. According to Krishna Murti, a conditioned mind loaded with knowledge, absence of love in life, and not discovering the individual truth are the causes of the crisis of meaninglessness in human life. Krishna saw freedom from knowledge and the known, creation of love in life, and discovery of personal truth as the solutions to this crisis. According to Abu Saeed, "selfishness" and "not having a genuine life" and according to Krishna, "absence of love" and "failure to discover individual truth" are, in fact, different interpretations of the same reality. The presence of God in Abu Saeed Abu al-Khair’ s teachings and His absence in Krishna’ s thoughts is the main difference in the views of these two mystics.